Social Science Education: A Curriculum Frontier

[Pages:7]Patricia Schmuck, John E. Lohman, Ronald Lippitt, and Robert Fox

Social Science Education: A Curriculum Frontier

INTEREST in the revision and improvement of social studies curricula by curriculum specialists, teachers and social scientists is clearly increasing. While mathematics and the physical and biological sciences have made great strides in bringing their curricula abreast of current knowledge, there has been no similar discipline-based movement in so cial studies. This is true, even though social science research and theory have progressed extensively in the past quar ter century. Four limitations, of current social studies education are briefly sum marized here.

Some Limitations of Social Science Curricula

1. Social studies have been viewed primarily as a body of information to be mastered. Learning has focused on mem orizing facts rather than the develop ment of critical and analytical thinking.

2. There has been little distinction be tween value clarification or value inquiry and value indoctrination. It is important to teach children the distinction, on the one hand, between objective data collec tion, analysis and interpretation of phe nomena and, on the other hand, the mak

ing of reflective value judgments about those phenomena.

3. We have tended to make false as sumptions about the learning potential of children and have expected too little from them. As the new math and phys ical science curricula have shown, chil dren can understand and use concepts that traditionally have been reserved for high school or even college students. We have also assumed an obligation to pro tect children from the "harsh realities" of life. While we may view poverty, un employment, discrimination, crime and war as "harsh" realities, nevertheless, they are part of children's lives whether by exposure to mass media or through the range of their own experiences.

4. The social studies curricula do not adequately represent the disciplines that

Patricia Schmuck is a former elementary school teacher and currently Project Co ordinator; John E. Lohman is Research As sistant and a doctoral candidate in Social Psychology; Ronald Lippitt is Professor of Psychology and of Sociology and Program Director; Robert Fox if Professor of Educa tion, Director of University School and Re search Associate; all of the Center for Re search on Utilization of Scientific Knowledge, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,

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deal with man and his social world, Psy chology, social psychology, sociology, an thropology, and economics have been ignored to a large degree, while history and geography and some aspects of po litical science dominate.

Need for Social Science Education

It seems important to us to introduce a broadly gauged program of social sci ence education at all age levels. This should be done because the social sci ences represent bodies of knowledge that are a significant part of the contemporary stockpile of science-based information. Social scientists are playing an increas ingly important role in social policy, so cial legislation, and many other aspects of social engineering. We have an obli gation to expose children to this body of knowledge and practice and to allow them to develop images of social scien tists and their work just as they develop images of physical and biological scien tists.

What is more important, children con tinuously do learn about human be havior. They are required to interact within the context of their family, their classroom, their peer group, their churches and their clubs. They do make generalizations about human behavior and take value positions. We must, how ever, question the accuracy as well as the adequacy of these unguided inci dental learnings.

The classroom can and should be a

An introductory unit presents the do main of social science to the students and includes a series of activities focused on developing methodological skills such as observation, interviewing, and coding. The other six units are designed to en compass some aspect of behavior.

Criteria for Content

Two criteria have been developed for determining the content of these six units:

1. The particular area of inquiry must have been the subject of a considerable amount of scientific investigation which has produced a coherent body of data and theory.

2. The area of inquiry must have rel evance and meaning in the life of the child.

The six units selected are: Friendliness Unfriendliness; People and Groups Dif ferent From Ourselves; Getting Work Done Alone and in Groups; Social In fluence; Decision Making; and Personal and Group Development.

The package of materials in each unit consists of a teaching guide, phonograph records of behavioral incidents, a chil dren's workbook and a booklet of scien tific studies and experiments rewritten for children. Each unit has been struc tured flexibly so that the teacher may adapt it to his pupils' past experience and readiness, methodological skills, con ceptual knowledge and previous expo sure to social science. The units are be ing developed for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade children. Instead of designing different topics for study at these different grade levels, we believe the child can study the same phenomena with increasing com plexity and methodological sophistica tion. Each unit involves die following sequence of study phases:

made between objective interpretations and predictions based upon data yielded by scientific study and the evaluation of these findings in terms of individual per sonal and social values. These are seen as complementary aspects of the inquiry process. The child identifies the value preferences he maintains about social interaction and examines their bases.

8. Generalization children develop implications of findings for other situa tions, for other people, at other times.

9. Evaluation children evaluate the appropriateness of the methods they used to answer questions (involvement in issues of reliability, validity, size and representativeness of sample, etc.) and prepare new inquiry questions which the study has raised which might be an swered for fuller understanding.

Phases three through nine may be re peated several times. In any one unit there may be 15-20 possible inquiry projects from which teachers and pupils will select those of greatest interest and relevance for study.

1. We found that teachers had vary ing degrees of knowledge and attitudes about social science. It was necessary to give basic scientific education about the content and methods to be taught.

2. Our materials introduced some new teaching techniques that required train ing and practice. We developed skill training exercises for teachers.

3. Teachers needed some "at the el bow" or reference help for problems that arose in the course of teaching. Consul tants were made available.

In any wide distribution of curriculum materials, it is, of course, not feasible to depend on continuing personal consulta tion for teachers. In order to meet teacher-needs the project staff is devel oping a self-administering package of materials which may be used individu ally or by a group of teachers. We have identified six areas of activity that re quire understanding and skill for teach ing these units. Each area is represented by conceptual and skill material which includes phonograph records, workbooks containing programed materials, teach ing exercises and reference materials.

Curriculum Development and Applied Social Science

The needs for continued teacher edu cation are probably more crucial in our present day than ever before. We have outlined one approach training courses built into curriculum materials. Another approach might be through a new version of a university correspondence course in social science. A teacher could be involved in the university corre spondence course for credit while teach ing the materials in his class. Expansion of well designed in-service education programs sponsored by school systems is another approach.

To foster the development, diffusion and adaptation of the social science cur riculum is in itself a scientific challenge. We must use our scientific resources to inquire into such questions as the fol lowing:

1. How can the concepts and methods of the disciplines best be related to the levels of development of children's con cepts, interests, attitudes, and range of experience?

2. How can teachers be prepared to seek, rather than resist, the challenge of re-learning and continuing new learrfing of social science knowledge?

3. How can data on the learning expe riences of the pupils be fed into the cur riculum revision process?

4. What kind of orientation do par ents need in order to understand, sup port and contribute to the development of social science education?

5. What teaching techniques will be most effective in achieving the goals of social science education?

We have identified variations on two current patterns of curriculum develop ment and spread. In one pattern the social studies curriculum specialist (in a College of Education or a large school system) conducts a curriculum revision or development project, utilizing a co operating school system or set of teach ers for feasibility testing, and consulting knowledge specialists for validity check ing.

Diffusion and adoption depend on the usual channels of commercial pub lication, professional journals, and local teacher committees. In a second pattern, the content specialists, the scientists, "call the shots" in the development proj ect. Classroom teachers are recruited to try out the materials, while direct inservice education is conducted by the scientists, primarily in summer institutes.

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